Maybe the Moral is, that it's better to concentrate on what you do best and put all of your talent and resources into THAT.

Very true, unfortunately in the global corporate business model and mentality and satisfying shareholders, "If you're not expanding, you're not in business " And simply "Maintaining" where you are at, is looked upon as bad business or a losing proposition. This has led to this endless cycle of buyouts, mergers, takeovers, etc.

__________________" Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding." Albert Einstein Enjoy the Journey.... Kev...

I think Fender took the Genz Benz idea of great sounding weight optimized products and incorporated that so thoroughly into the Fender branded products that the short production run Genz Benz models made no sense to retain.

Kaman, which we recoginize for their major brands, was a large distributor of musical products which I imagine is still largely functioning under the Fender umbrella (all that small stuff in a music store adds up to some significant business).

Fender's handling of Tacoma, Ovation and Guild kind of hurts too, but by the time they ended up in Fender they were (likely money loosing) low volume operations.

As a bassist who uses Genz-Benz gear I think Fender did the brand a favor. They could have continued it, with ever-decreasing quality control and customer support, and let it die a slow lingering death as Jeff's name became synonymous with cheap junk. Instead, GB bass gear is highly valued and the name means something good to bassists. The new Genzler bass gear is getting lots of attention because of that.

Genzler's Acoustic Array Pro is said to be outstanding, but I've not had an opportunity to audition one.

Fender bought Kaman and decided they did not need the brand. Jeff Genzler has started a new company with similar products not surprisingly branded Genzler.

Very interesting :>)
One of my fellow AC guit players has a Shenandoah. To my mind it's up there as a pretty darn good one. Def a step up from a bunch of them that seem to be 'stick a piezio over a cone driver and call it good.
My ref came from a time comparing AC guitar through studio monitors, some decent relatively neutral pa speakers I have, to see 'what is it' -or not :>) about?
As a result landing on the (earlier ver) three way Fishman Performer.

It suspect the Shenandoah's dual 6" main drivers is part of it's 'edge.

Some good things about the 60, one being that there are 2 channels the same while a lot of new amps have one guitar input and one mic input. The first channel has a mic and a 1/4" input that the manual says 'sums' both inputs in an emergency. Handy. Stereo outs good if ie. you use a Boss VE8 with stereo out - you can use it in your amp and run it stereo out to a mixer/PA. (a lot of effects are nicer in stereo...).